Google-Agent (Project Mariner)
Google-Agent is the web agent behind Google's Project Mariner, an experimental product that lets Google's AI models browse the internet and perform actions at a user's explicit request. It does not crawl autonomously — it only acts when someone asks it to do something specific. Unlike Googlebot, it ignores robots.txt because Google treats it as a user-initiated action rather than scheduled crawling. Google publishes the IP ranges it uses in a public file (user-triggered-agents.json), so you can verify its identity. A well-structured, easy-to-read site gives the agent a better chance of finding and using your content when a user asks something relevant to your business.
- User-agent
Google-AgentMozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Google-Agent; +https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-agent) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36- Does it respect robots.txt?
- No — it ignores the rules
- Official documentation
- https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-agent
How to allow it in your robots.txt
User-agent: Google-Agent
Allow: /How to block it (not recommended)
User-agent: Google-Agent
Disallow: /Frequently asked questions
Should I block Google-Agent?
Not if you want Google's AI tools to be able to interact with your site on behalf of real users. Keep in mind that blocking it via robots.txt won't work anyway — this agent ignores it by design because Google classifies it as a user action, not autonomous crawling. If you really need to block it, you would have to do so at the server level.
How does it affect my visibility in Google's AI tools?
When a user asks the agent to find something related to your industry, it can visit your site directly and read its content. A clear, well-organised site with no technical barriers gives the agent a better chance of extracting and using your information accurately, which may increase the likelihood of your business appearing in those responses.
How do I know if Google-Agent is visiting my site?
Check your server access logs or hosting dashboard for requests with "Google-Agent" in the user-agent field. To confirm the visit is legitimate, you can verify that the source IP belongs to Google by checking the user-triggered-agents.json file that Google publishes publicly.